The activated alarm was not on the forefront of the half-elf’s mind. Rather, it was the dreadful thought, that if the djinn was able to look that far back with just a cursory look, then who was to say that Morgan didn’t already know. That she didn’t already know that her son…

…

…

“Ow…ow…jeez hun, did anyone ever tell you not to think too fast. Terribly sorry that I touched a nerve, being cooped up in my lamp did me no favors in social interactions. But rest assured that my ability to pry into memories far eclipses that of Mistress Morgan’s skill. Everything information-based is my specialty.”

D.J.I.N.N. lightly smacked a hand against Nameless’s face, arousing him to the situation that was going on. That the alarm was going off. Then the tan woman unwrapped her legs and pushed herself off the taller man. The unique entity displayed a contortionist level of flexibility, as she disembarked from her seated position and landed on the floor outside of her room. The invisible barrier flared a sharp red light and released a buzzing noise as the djinn seamlessly moved through it. The soft green-haired woman uncaring of triggering an alarm that was already activated.

“Ah~ It feels good to stretch out my legs and use these dogs on fresh ground. Let me tell you bedding, and covers is nice on the soles, but sometimes information-based beings just want to feel a little abrasion against our exterior layers. You know dearie? The struggle of little bumps distorting underneath the bottom of my foot before the wrinkles just swallow them up…Oh! Pardon me hun for being such a chatterbox during this most inopportune time.”

Key Magic!

The djinn paused her soliloquy once she saw the distressed look on Nameless’s face once he turned around himself. The half-elf tried to emulate what the tanned woman just did but felt the force of the barrier rebound against him.

“What! It’s completely solid. I…I can’t find that hole from earlier.”

It…the spell must have gotten stronger now that it’s set off. But I don’t hear anything, does that mean that it’s…

“It’s remotely communicating with your golem servant that it went off.”

The djinn crossed her arms as she looked at the flustered young man. His eyes already wide at the thought that the tan woman verbally finished.

“Can you please stop reading my mind and get me out of here!”

“Now hun, assertiveness is desirable, but there is such a thing as being too needy.”

The djinn rapped the fingers on her right hand, into the crook made by the bend of her opposing elbow. Then the tanned woman wobbled her head. As if the situation wasn’t that serious, and she was merely chiding a child on his manner of conduct.

“As for your earlier thought, which I think would be in your interest, yes. Gloriana must have been alerted. As I can sense her rushing down the basement. Hmm~ those golems, their thoughts sure do spill out like an interesting cloud. Almost like a clogged-up bottle of curdled milk. Now that I think about it, I think that it is about time that I wet my throat. How long has it been since my last drink? Half a century.“

Now Nameless’s eyes bulged out of his head.

“You, you have to help me out of here. I can’t be found by Gloriana. I’ve already caused my family so much grief with my inability, I don’t want them to be burdened with this.”

D.J.I.N.N. tilted her head.

“Is that your wish?”

“My wish? You can’t just get me out.”

Nameless asked incredulously.

“Oh hun. I would love to. Aside from the poor decor, your mother has been a lovely mistress. Much better than that sly woman before her. Unfortunately, my great power comes with a cost of limited utility and autonomy. You may not see it, but I’m literally chained against my will in helping you. As breaking you out of that insulating membrane, at your current stature, would require a higher-order technique.”

Nameless pressed his hands against his temples in aggravation.

“That…that is so stupid. You mean that you can’t just…who decided this!?”

The tanned woman tapped the edge of her chin, and then shook her head and exhaled.

“This is a limitation, that us djinns are quite dissatisfied as well. However, getting into eons of history would take too long…and your golem servant just passed the last corridor. She’ll likely be here in two minutes flat.”

“Oh…oh shit…”

Nameless’s shoulders slumped in defeat. As he realized the situation, he was in. Lying to his family and sneaking into the basement’s secret entrance. Going against his mother’s wishes and tampering with something that Morgan had kept tucked away. Then what would the young man tell when his family members started interrogating him. That he wasted so much time that could have been used to other means. 

Do I just wish to get out, but then there won’t be any wishes left…?

Meanwhile, in that short moment, the djinn’s eyes shined with pity. 

“Hey dearie it’s not that bad. Are you sure that you can’t just have an open and honest conversation with your family? Sure, they’ll be a little mad, but aren’t you fond of getting dominated? Like all those dirty fantasies that you have about being just a bug around their feet?”

The soft green-haired haired woman bit her lip, as she observed the effect that her words had on her master. Instead of calming him down, had the opposite effect.

“That…that is completely different! And I don’t want to be stepped by them! Why would I want that? They’re my family.”

D.J.I.N.N. cocked her head in increased confusion. 

“Then why do you have those thoughts about them. Are you sure that you aren’t lying? Even after I dispelled my body’s alluring effects on your mind, you still have thoughts about looking at my toes. See?”

She innocently lifted her foot the toe ring attached to her third toe gleamed. The flexing oblong, shaded by the dim light in a way that accentuated the wrinkles of her feet, would have usually enchanted the half-elf during less alarming circumstances. Furthermore, under the current duress, Nameless couldn’t help but think that the djinn’s current actions might have been insincere.

“That…you just don’t understand…”

D.J.I.N.N. noticed the shift in her master’s mood. After dropping her foot and tried to reach a hand towards the young man, but she stopped short. The tan woman had lived enough millennia in civilized organic society to know when their fleshy mask faltered.

“I. No. I’ll just ruin everything again.”

There was a pain to the half-elf’s voice. One brimming from the reservoir that found its source in a past tragedy.

“Oh hun…”

The djinn could feel the mechanical thoughts of the golem nearing. The servant was just outside the closed secret passage. The soft-green haired woman then placed her hands on her hips, dipped her head down. She collected herself for a moment in quiet contemplation, before flipping her hair back wildly to face her mistress’s son. The bright expression on her face was a bit forced. As if the unique entity might regret what she was about to do.

“Look, I’m usually required to debrief my masters and get your informed consent before granting a wish of my own intellectual production. But time isn’t allowing for it. The wish that I mentioned earlier, well with the changed situation it will be four birds, one stone.”

Nameless blinked and pieced together what the djinn meant.

“You mean that the wish you mentioned that would be able to grant my three wishes, would also be able to get me out of this situation?”

D.J.I.N.N. briskly nodded.

“Yea, but you must decide now. Your servant is going to be here in less than a couple minutes, and I’m afraid that erasing her memories of this incident is one bird too many for just one stone.”

Nameless halted before the words bubbled out of his mouth. Apprehension gripped his heart as he was juggling between three choices. 

Waste the wish to escape with a simple wish of his concoction. Wasting the time and effort he spent on this scheme.

Let himself get captured, face the music, and then either continue the same daily tedium or try again. Except  the latter would have significantly worse odds. With his mom now being privy to his rebellious intentions.

Or have the djinn grant the single wish that would solve his present problem, and the three wishes that he wanted simultaneously. The only drawback was that the young man had no idea how the soft green-haired entity would accomplish this. Solving the issue of his limitations of choices in magical paths, getting him out of the pressures of a socially intrusive family, supporting his loved ones, and getting out of this current mess without anyone knowing.

Before the rule breaker could ruminate on it further, his eyes darted past the unique entity. His eardrums pulsed as distinct vibrations lightly pelted them from a distant, but encroaching source. Firm and rhythmic footsteps of his mother’s doppelgänger.  

Nameless made his decision.

“Okay! Okay! I give you my consent. Grant that wish that you are thinking of! Hurry!”

The half-elf pressed his hands against the impermeable membrane. The tensile strength of the flaring surface refused to be impressed by the force of the young man’s palms.

“Wonderful.”

D.J.I.N.N. nodded.

“Okay. Stand still, close your eyes, don’t make any sudden movements, and don’t try and extend your senses magically. Otherwise, the world is going to spin like you’re on the back of a wyvern, and you’re going to be vomiting for the next couple hours.

Nameless resisted the urge to ask any questions and simply obeyed. The seconds in darkness were painstakingly long. Especially since the young man had spent so much of his waking time these past weeks with his eyes closed and viewing the world with extended sight.

“Uhh…D.J.I.N.N. did you already do it?”

The half-elf’s distress skyrocketed once the thumping echoes of the distant maid’s steps nearly increased ten times in volume.

Is she already here!

Nameless opened his eyes. The world blurred, as his ocular structures tried to readjust to the dimly lit room. There was no nascent light source that caused the momentary partial blindness. Nor was there a visual sign of the silver replica of his mom in a maid suit. Instead, the half-elf felt a frigid chill crawl up his spine and staggered back at what he saw.

For his world had vastly changed. 

The tile that Nameless stood on, that was no larger than the size of half-elf’s foot, now stretched out like the family training field that they were at this morning. He stared the once small dust. That now freely drifted through the open air as dense collection of fluffy transparent clouds, and his nostrils reflexively flared at the stronger scent of mildew that had escaped his sense of smell earlier. 

Then the world shook, and Nameless jaw dropped. Even the air now had a taste to it, like a fermenting brew that made the young man want to clamp his mouth shut. But that was not enough incentive to overcome the overwhelming shock that pervaded his entire being. Existing on the other side of the red-tinted wall, was a massive monolith. Colored mostly brown, with interruptions of differently textured pink, and sloping in a manner that was naturally occurring. At least in comparison to other structures of similar size found in nature. The half-elf felt his neck ache as he instinctively tilted his neck up to try and meet the vision of the djinn that once sat on his shoulders.

Now…she was taller than the highest castle in the Longinquus kingdom. A mind-blowing sight, as the tan woman must have been only 5’6” when Nameless was normal sized.

She…she shrunk me…

Nameless stepped back and felt an uncomfortable sensation along his upper back. Sharp jabs pricked against the half-elf’s spine, as he moved his arms and continued to crane his neck. The unending brown  pasture laid completely vertical on the mountain of a woman. Reaching up to the well-shaded mounds of her scantily covered breasts. A gentle curving slope stretched past the ridge of the djinn’s collarbone, but that was when the sharp features of the giantess’s face began to blur.

His baseline vision was unable to fully process the face of the mountain, but he could discern her gentle features that shifted into a facsimile of a gleeful expression. 

This…this is just like my fantasies…but more…”

Nameless didn’t have the chance to finish his thought. The world shook again. The djinn, he realized had taken another step forward. His field of vision was robbed of the kind face that looked down at him. Instead, the young man had to rely on his ears to derive more information of what those full lips were being used for. 

“Great. It looks like the transformation worked. Nameless, pardon my actions, but we simply do not have time.”

The djinn’s words had taken on a deeper quality. A second filter that ended thunder to the energized lightning that tinted the inflection of her voice.

“You’re the perfect size to pass through the barrier, but it’ll take you too much time to cross it before the golem servant gets here, and I should probably leave for my 10-year vacation before she gets here as well.”

No further words were spared. Nameless looked straight ahead. His face paled at what he saw. The massive mass of pliable brown, pierced through the red tinted barrier.

But…why…why did I have to be shrunken…

The half-elf’s heart was tightened into a vice, his throat swelled, his lungs ached from each breath, his body felt so warm, the ends of his limbs endlessly tingled, and the mass within his lower garments throbbed.

Confusion beset the flabbergasted cleric. Unsure of how to respond to the situation, he did nothing. As the portly ends of the djinn’s fanning toes reached him.

“Oh Goddess…I’m even smaller than her littlest toe.”

Nameless absorbed as many details that he could in the swift second that followed. 

There must have been a divine force to the caramel-skinned woman, as there was not even a stain of dirt of irregularity to the underside of her foot. The imposing mass tilted upwards, its splaying toes oscillated, as if measuring the distance that it should approach the shrunken individual. The shaded light of the dungeon painted the textures of the whorled patterns on the djinn’s toes. They cracked further open, and the same intoxicating scent billowed forth over Nameless’s sensitive orifices.

Gaping mouth, tender tympanic membranes, tender nostril cavities. The young man’s senses were all washed by the divine miasma that nearly broke his mind when his face was first pressed into the djinn’s stomach. 

Now, the half-elf knew the reason why these unique entities were recorded so sparsely. They truly were otherworldly and divine existences. It was a truth that his melting mind drank down with gusto. 

The bulbous shape of her second and third largest toe spread around his torso, before clamping down over him.  The invagination that formed the depression of djinn’s toe gap was so expansive, that the half-elf could have fully sunk into the flesh and been hidden within the space. Instead, the floor of the toe gap pressed against Nameless’s torso and pulled him up along with it.

To the young man’s spellbound mind, it felt like he was being cuddled by the softest pillows in the world. The result of the djinn’s mind-polluting miasma. A byproduct of the gentle being. A towering entity, who seemed to not have realized that the aroma’s strong controlling effects, unique to her existence, had once again imposed its mental corruption over her master. 

Either that or she didn’t have the time to care.

Regardless, the reality was that Nameless was not encircled by pillows. The rubbery surface of the firm digits placed enough pressure on the shrunken half-elf, that when the djinn lifted him up, his ribs screamed from being squeezed. The pulsing neurons sent the agonizing information to the intoxicated brain. An organ that presently was unable to recognize the small blunt force that was compressing the width of Nameless’s torso a smidge thinner. The young man’s captivated mind could not even conjure magical wards to strengthen his body’s resilience. Thus, he was completely prey to the giantess’s whims. 

A simple scrunch of her divine toes, and he would be reduced to an oily smear along. The only question was if the grease and red stains would stay on the djinn’s toes, trickling down to reside in the endless concentric circles, or would his remains be rejected from the unique existence like everything else in the world. Erased from the bulb-ended digits. All traces of his life and death gone, for no one to find. Only those crossing eternal toes, the machinations of his hypothetical doom, being the evidence of his existence.

Neither reality had come to pass as the tiny half-elf’s feet left the enormous floor. His weight tugged down by gravity, but it inspired the mind-molten slave to lurch his head downward. Into the fleshy divot that formed the toe’s interstice. An aggravated moan would have barreled out of the pervert’s mind if he still had his senses. At the disappointment that he got to live out his wretched fantasies, yet there was a lack of foot funk to inspire lovely revulsion. Instead, the mind-controlled Nameless suspired the electrified atmosphere that hung over the giantess’s skin, and he obsequiously lavished the gridded ridges of her toe’s interstice with a deep plunge of his tongue. The aerosolized fetor, that roasted the young man’s eyes, ears, and mouth, sent his mind spiraling. Nameless ignored the strain on his hanging body and thrust his lower body up in repeated arcs. Just for the chance that his hips and engorged cock would collide with the provocative hallux that lay underneath his sight. Along with a landscape of unending wrinkles that decorated the djinn’s plush sole.

Please…just let me sink in…

Wordless praise reverberated in the half-elf’s empty mind. Nameless didn’t even notice that a second passed. So too did he pass through the once solid membrane that still flashed red. Nor did he notice the flowing current of wind blowing back on his face and facilitating the streaming of the djinn’s natural aroma into his tainted lungs and brain. During the following second that the divine giantess took a step back with her other foot and dragged the tiny away from the opened door of her home for the past decade and several years.

What Nameless did notice occurred during the following seconds. When the was the strain on his stretching arms increased. Limbs that hugged the inner surface of the djinn’s spreading second and third toes.

What…what…

The first cohesive thoughts in the nascent djinn slave’s mind rattled out in a confused and disjointed pace. But by that point the toes had spread too far for the half-elf’s minuscule body to hold on too. Spread like an eagle, the last mindless thrust of Nameless’s hips was his undoing. The downward arc of his body, and the reducing friction between his minuscule palms and the firm ridges on the sides the tan giantess’s caramel toes, led his body to ultimately fall away, and down to the floor.

Thud

“No! No! No! Please! I’ve done so much that I’ve regret. So much that I’ve regret not doing. Please don’t leave me goddess. Please don’t leave me D.J.I.N.N.”

Nameless was far and away from the djinn’s uniquely hypnotizing skin, but the rubber’s salt and flowing aroma of mental poison still held a hold over his smoothened brain. He stood back up and ignored the dull cramp from his fall.

“I’ll try my best. I just want to serve you. Nothing else matters in this existence.”

His small words barely pieced the atmosphere, while the giantess above spoke. The young man instinctively fell to his knees, unhearing of what the divine entity had to say, but felt endlessly blessed to even be deigned the thunderous booms of her electrically charged voice. Then he bowed, his head slammed down to the floor, and groveled and cried.

“Ahh~ Goddess…Goddess…ahh…wha…what am I doing?”

The booms of the djinn’s voice ceased and with it the cloying atmosphere diminished.

“What…what was I doing again?”

Nameless looked up and jolts of hot lightning through his body. 

“Ah…shit! Why does it feel like I was put through a hold by Titania? Where is D.J.I.N.N?”

Nameless’s looked up and saw that the towering djinn had disappeared. The empty space that she once inhabited now filled with a spiraling wind. 

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

Instead, an advancing pair of new footsteps came to replace the vacant space.

Wait…she mentioned a vacation. Did she teleport away?

The young man had no evidence, but that had to be the answer. As the djinn was nowhere to be found.

Why couldn’t she have waited until she got me somewhere safer!?

CREAKK!!

That concern was about to become secondary. Nameless recognized that scratching noise. It was much louder and grating to his senses, but he forced himself to turn around. At the world-sized red door that was rushing back towards the frame. To close shut.

Oh crud!!

Nameless picked himself back up and began to run. But it was too late. The door slammed shut. 

A torrential gust of wind blasted out as a wave.

Nameless’s world exploded, and he flew into the sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

D.J.I.N.N waited for Nameless to close his eyes and shut off his senses. Then with a simple snap of her fingers, a flow of energy shifted within her and surged toward the young man. The dispersing cloud of information shifted into a form that would functionally alter the young man’s own mass. Right before the tan woman’s eyes, the 6’0” man shrunk down from his full height to about than half an inch.

There we go! You should be able to pass through the barrier easily now and evade your family’s social prodding.

The djinn smiled to herself before speaking down to the tiny master. Well, former master now. As she had completed her last wish.

“Great. It looks like the transformation worked. Nameless, pardon my actions, but we simply do not have time.”

I wonder if he’s noticed the other changes that I made to his shrunken body. To complete his other two desires. Eh~ he’ll figure it out.

D.J.I.N.N. glanced behind herself and knew that she had less than a minute by this point.

“You’re the perfect size to pass through the barrier, but it’ll take you too much time to cross it before the golem servant gets here, and I should probably leave for my 10-year vacation before she gets here as well.”

Then the tan woman poked her foot through the barrier, cautiously spread her toes, and picked up the tiny existence. Sure, she could have just as quickly kneeled and picked Nameless up with her hands. However, she did say that she desired to palpate some new textures with the bottom of her feet.

Oh! Yea that’s the stuff. Gotta love being an information-based existence. I can’t imagine being an organic-based existence and not being able to feel his cute quarter-inch form wriggling at this size.

The soft-green haired woman took a step back. A gentle smile rested on her face as she clenched her toes together. Despite the great size difference, the unique existence was able to sense the small half-elf’s mouth opening in active worship. Just like the fantasies that he had so many times in the past.

Mmh~ So now you aren’t that shy to admit your affection of being treated like a little bug. I guess obedient boys like him can be a little shy.

The tan woman whimsically imagined the young man, now the pitiful gnat that he always dreamed to be, as a happier addition in the family. She didn’t fully understand why he found happiness in this position, but she wasn’t one to judge.

I guess he must have been lying about not enjoying the thought of being squashed under sisterly toes or mashed under motherly foot.

D.J.I.N.N. quietly chuckled to herself while furthering her misconceptions. Not that it would matter much to the half-elf. As she was soon to be out of his life. Then she opened her toes and moved her foot away before looking down at the half-elf.

Odd…he’s kneeling. Maybe it’s just a sign of thanks.

“Okay hun, I’m going to head out now. I don’t want to be caught by the golem servant, as I’m pretty sure she’s instructed to stop me from leaving, and I’m not about to explain to an automaton that my contract is up. You should be able to hitch a ride on her.”

D.J.I.N.N. quickly whispered down to the young man. The tan woman knew that she just had seconds before golem servant would be able to see her.

“Anyway, I’m going to have some fun for my ten years off. Who knows, if I find the time then I’ll come stop by to see how your family is doing in a few years dearie.”

D.J.I.N.N. waved at the dot on the ground before she mentally strummed a string in her mind. Then just like that she vanished. The sudden absence of mass in the space created a residual vacuum that sucked in the surrounding air. Pulling wind from the room. Thereby tugging the opened door closed. It shut, and the dot on the ground flew into the air.

A dot that was nearly unnoticeable now that it was airborne. Thus, it was not noticed by Gloriana, the golem servant that just arrived after the door shut. 

Her appearance was like Morgan’s own appearance. Except her skin and hair were a homogenous and gleaming silver. Even her eyes, which lacked pupils. Black lines, seams that formed the joints, trailed through her body where those shifting parts were necessary. The other small difference in her base appearance was the absence of small lines that radiated from Morgan’s own eyes. The only trace of age that could have been detected on the motherly elf and court mage. The absence of which, was due to the golem being constructed by a younger Morgan when she was younger and didn’t have those sparse facial wrinkles.

The silver woman was dressed in a black and white maid outfit made complete with frills, and a pair of loafers that were fitted to her feet. Gloriana blinked as she visually inspected the area. Her sensors yielding no signs of life in front of her. Thus, she evaluated that the triggered trap was a false alarm. Extraneous and low priority information that she tucked away for when she would receive her annual maintenance. The last one having just been completed a month ago.

Therefore, with nothing else to do under her protocol. Gloriana turned around and strolled out of the hidden hallway. She pressed on the tile to open and close the entrance and walked back up the stairs.

Gloriana then walked off, passing by the living room, to complete her next chore. The golem maid having only lost five minutes in her day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nameless fell in and out of consciousness. The half-elf’s rapid ascent and descent scrambled with his sense of balance and perception of the world. For those torturous seconds it all felt like a blur of gray. His fluttering eyes and unfocused gaze only barely registering the flashes of black and white that emerged over the unending gray world.

I’m going…to die…

Nameless thought during the most stationary moment of his trip in the sky. The zenith of the young man’s arc. Fear fueled the tiny half-elf’s mind and movements. The studies he memorized in the past month filled his head. 

Strengthening Magic to fortify the young man’s body, 

Light Vibrating Counter Magic to disperse the incoming force, 

and Entropy Conjuration Magic to slow his fall by changing the flow of wind.

Each barely familiar and rushed technique, tumbling through his spinning head, sapped the energy bolstered by his life-or-death impelled hormones. 

White. Black. Gray. 

It all rushed past him. Until he felt the impact crash on his side.

…

The young man’s mind pulsed with a hot white light. He was blinded and numb to the world. As it felt like his body was engulfed by sharp flames. Crackles of electrical activity conveyed rhythmic throbs that shook the half-elf’s body. 

However, all this torment that exploded in the young man’s awareness, meant that he was still alive. The purgatory of torture ebbed, and he was able to localize the gravest of injuries. Specifically, the agonizing pain that came with each breath.

My ribs…

Nameless tried to move his arms and legs and was thankful to find them reflexively halt from hot lightning traversing his limbs. Not from a complete inability to move them. The half-elf’s spinal cord was still intact. What was most alarming to the young man, was the taste of iron that filled his mouth, along with a sharp, noxious scent. The injured man nearly thought that he was experiencing a massive blood loss, until the white world began to regain definition. 

The gray expanse beyond his elevated platform came into view. Nameless’s eyes darted back and forth. At the black landscape. Sloped and curved like a small hill on a beach, and colorless speckles, like the colorful speckles that filled those sands, dotted the training field-sized landscape. Nameless was calmed to see that there was no outpouring of red from his body. Thus, he was able to confront problems that would have been distal to life threatening circumstances but were paramount to his survival and finding help

Where am I?

Nameless looked up and down. A black platform dotted with what must have been dust. Raised ridges encircled the elevation. 

Ugh…that smell…

The half-elf grimaced. The scenery might have been comparable to the black sand coasts at the northern edge of the Longinquus Kingdom, but the stench certainly wasn’t. The only comparison that the young man could make was the time that he visited an iron works after visiting Titania’s workplace. The fetor was sharp and unforgiving. Like fire and sulfur. Nameless tried to roll away from the smell, but in doing so he was finally able to see the large white sheets wrapped into each other. Fashioned into a bow. One that would regularly sit upon the formal footwear that the maid wore.

I’m on Gloriana’s loafer.

The young man realized that the large and uneven training field he was on, was none other than the surface of a single foot that was rooted on the ground.

How? Just how small must I be for this plane to even be so large. I’d have to be less than an inch.

A speculation grounded on experiments the young man made while indulging in creating fantasies based on his microphilia. Although, that realization was secondary, to the fact, that the only reason he was able to recover was because the maid’s foot was completely motionless.

Shit!

The Cleric ignored the pain of moving his arms and angled them so that his hands plunged into his chest. He cast a comprehensive scanning spell to pinpoint broken bones, muscles, and nerves. The young man was thankful to see that there was barely any damage. Just some splinters along the shafts of his ribcage. Then what caused the taste of blood in his mouth, if it wasn’t internal bleeding. A side-ways glance would confirm the answer. 

The stretch of smooth and hairless skin, lacking pores, and gleaming silver. A taste of iron in Nameless’s mouth may have been present, if the odor emanating from the golem’s exposed tegument was dense enough to leave a flavor on his palate. Enough that it overwhelmed the musty leather of the aged loafer.

At this small size, practically everyone’s body odor would leave a taste in mouth. I guess that I should be happy that I’m not drunk happy on the odors of other people’s bodies like I am with the djinn’s scent.

The half-elf plunged his hand into his chest again as he wordlessly chanted an incantation to mend the cracks in his bones. Each pulse of energy made each breath he took that much easier. Nameless repeated the same process for his limbs but found no evident cause of injury.

Must just be muscle strain and fear coursing through me. Come on!

The young man picked his body up. His footing unsteady, but he knew that he couldn’t just lie around.

He didn’t know why the djinn shrunk him. He didn’t know how he was going to get anyone’s attention. He did know that the maid would move soon, and he needed to get to that rim that formed the stuffed throat of the loafer.

Muscles burned and tendons cried as they squeezed. His body bead with sweat, and he could feel his lungs being roasted from the exertion. Just moments before he was a body’s length away from the rim of the footwear, the black loafer shifted.

The curved floor below him quaked, and the displaced air from Gloriana’s small movements pelted his weathered body.

But fortune smiled upon him. What Nameless felt was Gloriana turning in the hallway. It would have been disastrous if she took a step with the foot that the speck-sized half-elf was on. Instead, the maid lifted her other foot for that first step. Giving the stumbling young man ample time to give a final lunge towards the gap that the golem maid fitted her silver foot into.

Gotcha—

The thought was interrupted as the young man was taken on a journey. The formerly gently diffusing air, cut against his sensitive facets as him and the shoe moved a mile a minute. The flow of the atmosphere was sharp, and the swimming vision of the world was unforgiving. Nameless’s eyes and mouth slammed shut, and his nostrils at least squeeze themselves into a smaller hole. However, the young man could do little about his ears at this point. Those auditory structures were left unprotected against the howling wind. They quickly popped.

The towering maid continued walking. Without any awareness of the perk that she was subjecting her young master to. That he was engaged in probably the greatest physical struggle of his life. In trying to stay attached to her footwear, as she walked in a measured space through the murky hallway.

I…I…need to cast another spell…

A sensation of fullness emerged in Nameless’s ears. His hearing went, and he could feel an urge to vomit arise. The young man was thankful for the lack of breakfast this morning, but the violent gags his body would have to endure would be no help. Especially as the black training field that he clung on moved in a rowing arc. Like a house caught in a playful tornado that threw it around.

The tiny half-elf clung to the footwear with just his strength alone, his arm shoved through the gap between the loafer’s opening and the maid’s sicked foot. But that wouldn’t last long. Especially if the muscles and joints that were locked to keep him in place, were even more strained by the dry heaves brought on by the spinning world.

Balance Recalibration Magic.

Strength Amplification Magic.

Grrgh!!

Muscle-Bone-Connection Fortification Magic.

Three spells were cast in tandem. Simple formulas that flashed behind Nameless’s closed eyes. The bare minimum needed to alleviate the pain he was experiencing, and hopefully enough to keep him hanging on to the shoe. What it did made clear to the Cleric, was the one advantage he had from experiencing so much pain. 

It was a lack of time awareness. 

The more that he soothed his body and increased his physical abilities, the more acutely aware he became of the time that was passing.

Nameless flew in the air for seconds. Rested on Gloriana’s loafers for a minute. Then he made the mad dash for the rim of the loafer in the following half minute. Finally, he endured one minute without the additional spells boosting his body.

It was during this next minute, that Nameless came to a tacit understanding why a cooled boiling pot was more torturous than a hot boiling pot. There were more sensory faculties made available to process the horrific trauma of the situation.

For the next minute and a half, Nameless’s muscles were locked into a contracting cramp. However, his vital and accessory organs were less indolent. As the fibrous tissues, that kept them adhered and in place within the young man’s bodies, were unfortunately omitted in the cleric’s mind to cast spells on. Thus, each swinging of Gloriana’s foot felt like a million heated needles were being raked through his insides. 

The short time of Nameless’s dangerous ride, felt like a half-hour long sprint. The young man’s eyes watered, and snot trailed out of his tight nares. The latter forced his mouth to open and inhale the rushing air that bit sharply into his mouth and lungs. The spell cast to control his balance was made futile. As this forceful change led to a fit of violent coughs that burned up the necessary energy that Nameless’s muscles needed.

I…I…how much longer do I have to hold on?

The young man nearly gave up hope. As he felt he was about to lose his hold and fall to the gray tiled floor. Stuck at a size that could fit between a woman’s toes. In a basement that barely anyone goes to. A slow and isolating death or open confinement. Depending on how his body’s metabolism and functioning operated now. 

Just as Nameless’s body flopped up and down, impacting against the surface of the show, and he felt his arm slip from the gap, he recognized a change in light past his closed eyelids. The darkness of his closed vision had now lightened.

Light? Are…are we up from the basement.

Nameless wanted to open his eyes, but the spell to protect those ocular structures were not manifesting in his mind profusely. The magical energy that he tried to well up kept spilling out. As it was robbed and converted to the burning energy that his muscles were in dire need of.

I…I…just need to hold on a little bit—

Nameless was going to think that he needed to stay on until he knew where he was, so that he could safely disembark. He didn’t have the chance to think or make that choice.

The young man’s fingers gave out and he fell away from the shoe. Finally, Nameless opened his eyes and saw a plane of red, green, and yellow sail towards his body. He pulled his arms close to his head and chest and braced for impact.

Thud…

Nameless expected to be stopped by another sudden impact that would extirpate his sense of the world and throw him back into white purgatory. Instead, the young man felt a soft surface become incredibly firm, his body burned from the abrasive forces and friction, and then he bounced. 

It repeated again before the Cleric began rolling and tumbling. Finally, his body slowed to a stop. Eyes fluttering, mouth gasping, body caked in a cooling sheen of his own sweat, bones crying, barely any feeling in his right arm, and muscles exhausted to the point of being asleep in the nearly conscious young man. 

Balance…Recalibration Magic.

Worst of all. It felt like his head was being pricked by an ice pick in several locations. An unwanted guest in this party of painful messages that competed with the information sent by his stretched lungs. As the young man shifted between heaving nothing out of his empty stomach, but some clear fluid, and coughing from the brutal beatdown that his winded air sacs endured from a journey that made even the worst stormy ship run seem like a merry jaunt.

Is…is that the couch?

The room stopped spinning. His eyes focused on the brown border of the impromptu ceiling that hung overhead and to his side. It stretched above the brown surface was a stretch of a seemingly unending red wall. One that bulged out and was lined with fine hairs, the natural materials that went into construction of the couch. Nameless looked to his sides and saw the raised stalks that were just about his body length…standing. At least he assumed so.

It was because of this that he was able to confirm his current location. However, it was also because of this that he felt a firm and final thundering in the back of his cranium. His vision dimmed and he realized that he was losing consciousness.

No…I have to get somewhere safer. I can’t be this small down here…I must be…about a quarter of an inch.

Nameless recalled a brighter day in years past. Where the greatest worry he had was that no one would think he was being weird for being fixated with the fibers of the carpet. The reason being he in fact imagined himself in that red fuzzy forest. So, he just had to get the numbers down for his journal. 

0.25 inches or about 0.64 centimeters. That was how tall that dense collection fuzzy stalks in the living room carpet was. That was how tall Nameless was presently, as he fell unconscious within the dense jungle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A soft series of slaps reverberated in the distance. 

In this uneventful afternoon, one of the three sisters currently in the house strolled over to the living room. As she decided against secluding herself in the confines of in one spot. Especially with Titania, Morgan, and her brother Nameless out for the day.

Thus, not to waste this rare opportunity, she plodded over to the couch positioned over the carpet. With no regard for the dust that collected on the floor at all. Especially the carpet. Debris got caught in between the gentle fuzz of the living room furnishing so often, that the family members of the household had come to ignore the collection of it within that flat and downy surface. And instead enjoy the svelte texture under the pressure of their peds.

Of course, the question was, which of the three sisters was in the living room this noon? That would be an answer that one sleeping speck would find out…after becoming a little more animated.